The Eagle Times

Last Thursday night, the St. John Eagle football team faced the Eagles of Clinton High School in a pre-season scrimmage at COPAC field. The hosting Eagles of St. John went into their first pre-season scrimmage of the 2007 season as a class 2A football team. Though the Eagles are coming back from a history making year in 2006 in Class 1A, the team’s success is unsure in Class 2A.

In the scrimmage, St. John did much better than expected against a talented and experienced 2A football team. I was able to attend the scrimmage and was very impressed with my former teammates, as I knew I would be. The offense was able to move the ball on the ground as they pleased as well as in the air. When talking to Galen Johnson, St. John Eagle starting quarterback, he said that he liked the new offense that Coach Hoffman has put in. “It is a combination of the power and spread series,” stated Johnson. “I finally get to run the shotgun series,” added the Eagle senior quarterback. Galen also informed me that they will be running a no-huddle offense, which he thinks will benefit his Eagle offense and set them apart from other teams they will be facing. This is Johnson’s first year as the starting quarterback for the Eagles after being second string for the past three years. He told me that he was ready to step up to the challenges that lie ahead and lead the Eagles back to the dome for the second consecutive year.

The Eagle defense did a fantastic job, as always, while they handled the Clinton offense without a problem. St. John Eagle senior defensive back Rodarrick Jones thought the defense did well in their first scrimmage. “I was worried at first, but I just had to put things in Coach Hoffman’s hands and let him lead us to victory,” added Jones about his Eagle defense. I also asked Jones about his “big hit” in the game while on defense. “The hit was nice, but it doesn’t happen often. I saw that they ran a short route and the guy wasn’t looking as he attempted to catch the ball so I took the shot. Then, I had a little TV time so I have watched the hit a million times,” Jones stated.

Leadership from the Eagle upperclassmen will be essential to having a successful season. In my interview with Jones I asked him about his leadership roles as a senior. “I think that I have to lead by example, help the younger guys, and also help the coaches out with anything that they need,” he answered.

For the 2007 season the St. John Eagles will be returning with an entire new coaching staff, with the exception of Coach Chris Harrell. New coaches on the staff include head coach Bruce Hoffman, assistant coach Heath Whittington, assistant coach Oliver Crockett, and assistant coach James Papillion. In my interview with Galen Johnson, I asked him what he thought about the new coaching staff for his senior year. Johnson told me that the new coaching staff is a big difference from his past three years of playing football at St. John. He added that it is going to take time to get used to the new changes, but he thinks it will get better and better as the year goes on.

Both Jones’ and Johnson’s expectations for the 2007 season are very high, as they pointed out to me in our interviews. They feel that they must be prepared for every game and work extremely hard everyday at practice to be successful. “We must adjust to the adversity that we will face in class 2A,” said Johnson. Larger schools, bigger guys, and fewer players playing both offense and defense are some of the adversities that the Eagles will face: adversities that Johnson and Jones aren’t losing any sleep over.

By Clint Ourso and Ethan Lacombe